Give to GOP, tour Fox News with Fox pundit

The Fox News Channel is the unofficial broadcast wing of the Republican Party, its boss Roger Ailes a media coach to past GOP presidential candidates and parent News Corp. a $1 million 2010 donor to the Republican Governors Assn.

Still, even for the “fair and balanced” Fox — lately broadcasting almost daily interviews with Mitt Romney — the following note on Lake County, Florida, Republicans’ website should prove embarrassing:

“Dick Morris auctions himself as a personal tour guide for a visit to Fox News in New York and raised an additional $6,000 for Lake County REC Campaign Season.”

Morris, a pundit ubiquitous on The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity, was a Democratic consultant whose clients included liberal Washington Rep. (later Gov.) Mike Lowry. He helped bring President Clinton recover from the 1994 Republican landslide.

But Morris was banished by the Clintons just before the 1996 Democratic National Convention, after he was photographed with a hooker on the balcony of his Hotel Jefferson suite in Washington, D.C., and later revealed to have a thing for women’s toes.

He has since tacked far to the right, and found a home at Fox delivering predictions of doom for the Democrats. He has headlined Republican events and was Lake County Republicans’ Lincoln Day dinner speaker earlier this month.

The “personal tour” was revealed by MediaMatters.org, a liberal web site founded by a former conservative (“The Real Anita Hill” David Brock. It specializes in critiquing Fox and publishing internal memos.

Responding to MediMatters, Morris said:

“Fox News has no involvement in this auction nor have they either approved or sanctioned it. It was simply a private, personal offer of a personal meeting in New York City and a tour of Fox studios.”

Fox has also been the employer of past, present and prospective Republican presidential hopefuls including Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee.